I’ve rarely been accused of doing things part way. So why should turning 40 be any different.

There will be no shinny red sports cars or flashy new wardrobe. No girlfriends with the just kissed a hot frying pan look. No birthday blues or laments of what I haven’t done or resolve to do. Rather, I’m just going to do what feels right. I plan to crest the other side of that proverbial hill on the plains of Africa. Call it a midlife adventure.

Thanks to the good graces — and Herculean efforts — of my wife Stacy, Monday, November 5, I will join an eclectic assemblage of storytellers charged with documenting Operation Smile’s World Journey of Smiles — an ambitious medical effort to simultaneously correct some 5,000 facial deformities at 40 sites in 25 countries. For my part, I will spend ten days photographing children in Ethiopia with a documentary film crew.

While it’s all very new and exciting, there are many variables and myriad loose ends. For the most part, though, I’m ready. Typhoid, yellow fever, hepatitis vaccinations: check. Cameras, computers, creative vision: I got that. My day job: covered. But the one thing that tugs at my guts is the fact that this will be my first foreign assignment as a father.

Being away from those that make up who I am will easily be the hardest part of this whole thing. Along with not doing things half way, I also don’t often ask for help. Here I will: please check in on my family from time to time. It would mean the world to me.

I’ll post photos, thoughts, and your comments here as often as possible. I will also be reachable through online video conference via skype.com under the user name cdcostas.

Be well.

_carl